Methods of additive manufacturing may involve building objects on a layer by layer basis. Depending on the distribution and orientation of the object(s) to be built, the area of an object to be built for one layer (e.g., area per height) may be different (e.g., larger or smaller) than the area of the object to be built for a different layer. These areas of an object to be built at a particular layer may be referred to as a slice area.
The different areas for different layers means that the building time (e.g., scanning time) at a particular layer with a large area of the object to be built may be, for example, much longer, than the building time at a different layer that has a relatively small area of the object to be built. The longer building time at a particular layer can lead to greater heat generation at the layer, which can lead to issues in the build quality of that layer. For example, the differences in heat generation for different layers can cause different levels of shrinkage for the different layers, thus leading to uneven builds and quality. In addition, the differences in building time for different layers can result in different densities of the materials at the different layers, color differences on the object surface, and bad surface quality of the object. Further, the dimensions of the object may not come out as expected due to the differences in building time for the different layers.
Accordingly, there is a need for apparatuses and methods for better distributing slice area of objects between layers for improved building of the objects using additive manufacturing techniques.